UNAIR NEWS – Paul Grigson, Australian Ambassador for Indonesia and Prof. Stephen Smith, Former Foreign Affairs Minister of Australia, on Monday, October 31 were in Universitas Airlangga. They deliver a public lecture to students on “Bilateral Relationship between Australia and Indonesia”, in Kahuripan Hall Campus C UNAIR.
According to Grigson, the lecture was a form of knowledge sharing as well as a visit to improve and build up close relationship between both countries. It was done to improve understanding on Indonesia-Australia relationship and to invite students to study in land of the Kangaroos.
For Grigson, it was his first visit to UNAIR while for Smith, UNAIR is not a new place for him as last February he also gave a lecture in Faculty of Law UNAIR on challenges ASEAN Economic Community.
Paul Grigson explained about relationship of Australia and Indonesia in Tourism and Education. In Tourism, Indonesia has a lot to offer which make Australians visit the country. Indonesian tourism is not only about Bali and Lombok, but also other interesting places yet infrastructures and access often become obstacles.
”Australians do not only visit Bali and Lombok, there are a lot of interesting places such as in Riau, which in the near future will have its own airport to simplify access to get there,” said Paul, an alumnus of University of Queensland.
In Education, Paul also encouraged Indonesian students to continue study in Australia. Extensive data on study excellences in Australia was shown. First, eight universities of Australia are in Top 50 of World Best Universities, thus high quality and advance research. Both, four cities in Australia are students’ cities. Issues on comforts and city and campus environments are important to support the education. Third, the cost of study in Australia is less costly than universities in America or Europe.
The ambassador who has assumed office since January 2015 also disclosed the data of students who continue study in Australia. For 25 years, Indonesian students in Australia always improve 24 percents based on UNESCO data. Some universities often referred were Australia National University, University of Melbourne, University of Queensland, University of New South Wales.
“We target improvement on the number of Indonesian students who study in Australia, tourism aspect will be improved as well, such as through easy visa grants.” Said the Ambassador who is fluent to speak in French.
The former Autralian Ambassaddor for Thailand (2008-2010) also often interacted with students related to questions in Australia,” said grigson. “There were more cows,” said Grigson.
LONG RELATIONSHIP
Meanwhile, Stephen Smith, Former Foreign Affairs minister elaborated that Australia – Indonesia has been established for a while, even since the colonial period, trade cooperation has been started. He also explained cooperation at province and city level, East Java has cooperated with West Australia so does Surabaya with Perth.
“To improve cooperation between Indonesia and Australia, good relationship between both countries, states or even cities is needed, therefore as it is the way to improve bilateral relationship,” said Smith, a professor of International Law at University of Western Australia.
Asked about elemental differences between Indonesia and Australia, according to Smith, both countries cooperation was improved, equivalence of country became a point and at least do not focus on the difference. “Australian focus on maintaining relationship with Asia, including Indonesia and India,” said professor who used to play in Parliament Australia after.
Smith added, Australia is now becoming a popular country for taking refuge. He added that Australia also become the main country for giving asylum, there are even eight out of ten countries who supply refugees to make a living in Australia. Regarding the number of Islamic people in Australia, Ambassador of Australia, Paul answered that now there are more than 500,000 moslem living there, even 40% was born in Australia. (*)
Author: Ahalla Tsauro
Editor: Bambang Bes
